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Friday, September 30, 2011

Princessing Around the World

The Disney Hipsters really like to challenge ourselves. One of the things we love to do together is set some stupid goal and complete it. We do this during our normal lives together and especially when we're in Disney World.

Always ready for a challenge. Clearly.

-15 hours and 55 Attractions in the Magic Kingdom in one day. Check.
-Watch all 50 Animated Classics 50 days in a row. Check.
-Ride Spaceship Earth at least once a day for a 10 day trip. Check.
-Eat around the world (one item from each pavilion). Check.

During our recent trip in Sept 2011 we were trying to think of some other challenges to add to our insistence that we do as much stuff as humanly possible during our vacations....

Disney Hipsters present the best idea ever:

"Princessing" Around the World!

So many princesses so little time...

I must admit that we have become character stalkers over the last few trips. It all started with Duffy. I <3 Duffy. We can save that for another post. Like most Disney things, we tend to only meet characters that we really like. Our favorites tend to be the fuzzy ones such as Marie, Wendal, Big Al, Brier Rabbit, etc.
On a few occasions have met face characters that have been limited to the most amazing Snow White, Alice, Princess Tiana and Prince Naveen. We would have probably met some others but the lines are just too long. Our Disney Hipster insanity would never let us give up rope drop attractions in order to do a meet and greet.

We were sitting around the fire outside at Jambo house one evening trying to decide what to do in the morning. We had already done rope drops at The Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom and Epcot and had been to Blizzard Beach and Typhoon Lagoon both twice. (It was day 4)
After a few basic ideas the phrase "Princessing Around the World" flew out of my mouth. Within 5 minutes strategy had been developed. We'd do Epcot rope drop (Soarin, Test Track, Ellen's Energy Adventure! and Nemo) and then head over to World Showcase to wait in Norway at the rope to China at 10:45. After that we would execute the plan arranged below…which was quickly amended to include Duffy.

11:00am: First in line for Mulan. This nasty family tried to cut us because they had kids. Yeah, we were having none of that.
This Mulan was super duper mean. She was not into us at all. She also refused to stand in the sun. We asked her how her Dad was. He's doing better. Off to Germany.

Mean Mulan.

11:30am: 2nd in line for Snow. She was super sweet. A fairly long line formed behind us quickly so we kept our interaction short. She called us her "two Docs." We may have scarfed down a Dark Chocolate Salted Carmel from Karamell-Kuche while we waited.

Sweet as always, Snow White.

We then headed to Morocco to eat lunch at the Tangierine Cafe... We split a vegetable platter, which was yummy as usual. We then hang out in the area we believe Aladdin and Jasmine come out for 20 minutes or so with a few other families. A few minutes before 12:15 a cast member comes out and lines us up. yay!

12:15pm: The Aladdin was AMAZING. He seriously sounded like the voice talent from the movie. We also tend to challenge the cast members with questions about their characters.
Andrew: "Hey Aladdin, didn't you and Jasmine get married, making you a prince?"
Aladdin: "Why yes we did"
Andrew: "Then why are you still dressed like a street rat?"
Aladdin: "These pants are super comfy".

We were seriously up there for 5 minutes chit chatting. Ooh! Ooh! We gotta go...off running to France!

This Aladdin really knew how to play the character...

12:20pm: First in line. What a great Belle. We chatted about her Dad, the Beast, reading, etc. We were mostly concerned with why the Beast looks like the beast again. Belle...."Oh, we had the sorceress plant a rose garden full of magic roses so we can turn him back and forth whenever we want!" We also told her we'd be back to meet the beast. Belle..."I'll be sure to tell him. See you soon!" See you soon?? We were confused. Running again.

We have seen some really bad Belles...not this one. She was really splendid in her role.

12:25pm: Aurora. She was blah, but nice. Also the costume looks bad in person. The beautiful design of Sleeping Beauty really doesn't translate well into a live person/costume.

OK.

Run down the hill to meet Alice!!

12:30pm: yay!!! We look like monsters in this pic but who cares!! This Alice was wonderful. I asked her if we could sing. We skipped in a circle chanting the words to "How D'Ye Do and Shake Hands". She knew all the words.

One of the highlights of our trip, this superb Alice.

Eat a side of chips. Buy a teapot. Time to Meet Pooh and Tigger!

1:00pm: Tigger is bouncing. We couldn't get him to stop.

He just WOULDN'T STOP bouncing. Totally awesome.

We then line up by a light pole in the blaring sun and wait. And wait some more. 1:20 comes and goes. Finally a cast member comes by and ask us if we are waiting for Mary Poppins and informs us shes not feeling well. Boo.

Well, Back to France.

1:40pm: We waited on line forever. In the hot sun. I wanted to die. The beast was awesome and almost crushed me to death. And look Belle was there too!! We had no idea. "See you soon," now makes sense.

Another fun interaction with these guys. Belle is really working hard that day!

After all of that we were a bit beat up and headed out to jump in the pool. We also skipped Duffy as we met him a couple of days before. We did make a point of going back to Epcot to meet Ms. Poppins...one of Andrew's favorites.

Practically perfect in every way...except punctuality.

We spend a lot of time at Disney World, more than a month every year. We have done just about everything there is to do (multiple times), and we are always looking for something new and silly to accomplish. If you are like us, skip the over priced princess breakfast at Akershus and Princess Around the World!! Its a fun challenge the whole family could do and it gives you an excuse to spend some time wandering around World Showcase during the day!

(*This is Andrew. Adam wrote the above post. I'd like to point out that Aurora is my favorite of all the princesses and the one we met this day was fabulous, not "blah.")

5 comments:

I agree with you (well, Adam, I suppose) about the Aurora costume in the parks. It is way too overdone, the shoulder part has now morphed into something that can only be described as weird, and the fabric is so heavy and velvety that it doesn't even drape nicely. Just too overworked.

I've made a version of that dress that was much more simple and closer to what you see in the movie, and I think it looks much better that way. I feel for the friends of Aurora when I see them in the parks and I wish that costume looked nicer than it does.

You guys are hilarious. I swear, I just spent five minutes laughing as I read this. I love the challenges! I may even try them on my trip down there, but I doubt I have the stamina. Mean Mulan! hahaaha -Chelle